Nepal

GIZ has been active in Nepal since 1975. In Nepal, GIZ implements projects mainly on behalf of the German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ), but also other German ministries, namely the German Federal Ministry for the Environment, Nature Conservation, Building and Nuclear Safety (BMUB), as well as various co-financing partners. Presently, 22 seconded staff and about 210 national staff, 1 CIM expert and 11 development workers, 6 of them working under the auspices of the Civil Peace Service (CPS), have been working in different technical cooperation programmes with various partner organisations

PROJECT DATA

Nepal

Following ten years of civil war, elections to the Constituent Assembly were held in 2008. After the Constituent Assembly had been dissolved in mid-2012; and new election having taken place in November 2013, the Constituent Assembly promulgated a new constitution on 20th September 2015. The new constitution local election was held in 2017 and the general election will be held by December 2017.

Nepal is still faced with outstanding issues with regard to post-conflict reconciliation and transitional justice. Many of the problems faced by conflict victims, former combatants and internally displaced citizens are yet to be resolved.

On April 25, and May 12, 2015 the central and surrounding regions of Nepal were ravaged by major earthquakes which cost nearly ten thousand lives and caused massive damage to physical infrastructure. The country is still struggling with post-disaster recovery and reconstruction. The disaster still has huge impact on Nepal’s already frail economy.

Nepal’s economic growth lags far behind the booming economies of its neighbours. One third of the population lives below the poverty line with national Gross Domestic Product (GDP) at 20.9 billion US dollar in 2016 with very nominal growth rate of 0.6 percent for the fiscal year 2015/16. Life expectancy in Nepal is 67.7 for male and 70.8 for female . Nepal ranks 22nd among 33 Asian countries. Almost half of all Nepalese children are chronically malnourished. Since the early 1990s, there has been substantial reduction in child (under38 Per 1000 live births) and maternal mortality (258 per 100,000 live births), yet even today, only 55.6 % are assisted by skilled birth attendants.

Nevertheless, Nepal has achieved significant progress in poverty reduction, health and sanitation, school enrolment, HIV and tuberculosis prevention. As a result, Nepal has achieved most of the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs). With the encouraging achievements of the MDGs, Nepal is committed to the global Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) for the next 15 years.

The priority areas of Nepali-German cooperation are:

sustainable economic development and trade

renewable energy and energy efficiency

health

Additionally, a number of cross-boarder programmes are supported for the improvement of regional resource management in the Hindukush-Himalayas. Support is also provided with regard to Local Governance issues, Peace Building through the Civil Peace Service and supporting earthquake victims through a Recovery Programme.